StoryCorps

Spend an hour recording a conversation with someone around you at Thanksgiving time. There’s a 2-page recording guide that covers the basics. They also encourage you to listen to some of the recordings for inspiration, and then share your experiences with them once you’ve done so.

NMAAHC launches an online museum before its physical museum is constructed. Sponsored by the Smithsonian, the site hosts online holdings from its own archives and includes a Memory Book where people who to tell their own stories (mostly text-based) and submit images may do so. [via WRT] The virtual museum has lots and lots to explore.

The site makes prominent use of tags. So the Sojourner Truth entry, for example, is tagged women’s rights, abolition, activism, autobiography. The flash-based navigation widget toward the top of the page (or in a larger, separate window) allows you to explore different connections, from moments in history to topics to persons. You can follow threads that connect one to the next. With each click, the navigation widget loads up a new page and redraws new connections.

[UPDATED] My story about last Saturday’s Storycorps is coming. It’ll be a big photo essay. Lotsa details. Alas, tho, it’s been one of those weeks, so it’s not done yet. Here’s a wee preview – the end product, the disk. (click thumbnail to enlarge)

Family Stories. Everyone has 'em.

They tell where you come from. They hold secrets to who you are. This site explores how to use digital tools and media to record and preserve spoken memories of family members. Your host: Susan A. Kitchens (I got into this by talking to my grandpa; at the time he was 99 years old.)